Anybody can make biodiesel. It's simple, you can make it in your kitchen-- and it's BETTER than the petro-diesel fuel the big oil business sell you. Your diesel motor will run better and last longer on your home-made fuel, and it's much cleaner-- much better for the environment and much better for health.

If you make it from utilized cooking oil it's not only inexpensive but you'll be recycling a bothersome waste item. Most importantly is the GREAT feeling of freedom, independence and empowerment it will give you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you need to know.

Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, reliable and economical alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you need to customize the engine. The finest method is to fit a professional singletank SVO system with replacement injectors and glowplugs optimised for veg-oil, in addition to fuel heating.

With the German Elsbett single-tank SVO system for example you can use petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. Just launch and go, stop and turn off, like any other vehicle. Journey to Forever's Toyota TownAce van uses an Elsbett single-tank system. More

There are likewise two-tank SVO systems which pre-heat the oil to make it thinner. You need to start the engine on regular petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and then change to SVO in the other tank when the veg-oil is hot enough, and switch back to petro- or biodiesel before you stop the engine, or you'll coke up the injectors.

More info on straight veggie oil systems in my blog site.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear advantages over SVO: it works in any diesel, with no conversion or adjustments to the engine or the fuel system-- just put it in and go. It also has better cold-weather properties than SVO (but not as excellent as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,

it's backed by many long-lasting tests in lots of countries, countless miles on the roadway.

Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's reasonable to state that lots of SVO systems are still speculative and require further development.

On the other hand, biodiesel can be more pricey, depending how much you make, what you make it from and whether you're comparing it with brand-new oil or utilized oil (and depending upon where you live). And unlike SVO, it needs to be processed first.

But the big and rapidly growing worldwide band of homebrewers do not mind-- they make a supply weekly or once a month and quickly get used to it. Many have been doing it for years.

Anyway you need to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste veggie oil, used, cooked), which lots of people with SVO systems utilize because it's low-cost or complimentary for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water must be gotten rid of, and it most likely ought to be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to have to do all that I may also make biodiesel instead." But SVO types discount that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.